Electromagnetic radiation sources are often employed in providing high energy light (i.e. coherent or laser light) to medical, scientific, and projection equipment. Such high energy light often requires modification of the wave pattern, focus, beam shape, or other attribute in order to render the light in an optimal usable form by the equipment. Modification of the high energy light is often performed by optical elements positioned intermediate to the electromagnetic radiation source and the equipment that subsequently will utilize that light in its respective operation. The optical elements act upon the light as it is emitted upon and/or passes through the elements, with such action occurring in serial and/or parallel optical modification steps.
Optical elements used in modifying high energy light are extremely sensitive to orientation, thermal stress, and contamination of the light receiving/emitting surfaces. Slight deviations in one or more of the optical elements conducting a light pathway will cause at the least a significant degradation in the desired modification of that light energy and in most cases will cause complete failure of the light energy to be conveyed through the modification pathway. Thermal stress have multiple deleterious effects on a modification pathway, including distancing and orientation shifts which have the potential to induce the slight deviation mentioned previously, as well as inducing physical stresses in the optical elements themselves which degrade the operational lifespan of the overall system. Further, an obstruction to the optical clarity of the optical elements themselves will degrade the performance of modification pathway. Obstructions to optical clarity typically include opaque occlusions (e.g. dust, dirt, and lint) which settle on the optical surfaces and performance degradants (e.g. out-gassing volatiles, aerosolized liquids, and condensing oils) which accumulate on the surface and modify the reflective, refractive, and/or transmission values thereof. The concept of controlling these degradants and minimizing them around and near the optics that control the pathway of the beam is especially important at wavelengths at 400 nm and shorter. These violet and ultraviolet wavelengths have a tendency to “plate these contaminants” onto the surfaces of the optical pathway and thus, severely degrading the transmission properties.
The need for optical modification pathways, along with the associated environmental control processing and hardware has led to current optoelectronic packages being large, expensive, and difficult to both manufacture and maintain. Furthermore, the costs associated with initial manufacture and subsequent maintenance has resulted in significant capital outlays necessary to procure such equipment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,256 to Nightingale et al., utilizes an enclosure containing a laser diode, related optics, thermo-electric cooling, and printed circuit board based control logic in a singular unit. U.S. Pat. No. 6,252,726 to Verdiell, is directed to a secondary enclosure contained within a primary enclosure wherein the secondary enclosure includes a laser diode, optical elements and is thermally conductive to the primary enclosure through a heat pipe/thermo-electric cooling cascade. U.S. Pat. No. 6,801,561 to Kleinschmidt employs a two-chamber enclosure in which a laser beam is altered in wavelength by passing differing environmental conditions within each respective chamber.
The aforementioned enclosed laser-based optical packages met to a limited degree the functionality requirements needed in an optical modification pathway. However, there remains an unmet need for an optical package that is a modular unit; which can be removed, repaired, and replaced easily; and, provides thermal control for managing a microenvironment contained therein once the modular package is installed in the complete system with the electromagnetic radiating source.